Hundreds of migrants trying to return to France under lorries or on makeshift rafts due to asylum system failings

17 December 2024, 08:50 | Updated: 17 December 2024, 08:52

Hundreds of desperate asylum seekers are trying to ‘escape’ the UK for France beneath lorries and on makeshift rafts after being left in limbo by British authorities, LBC can reveal.

On a two-day visit to the south-coast port of Dover, we saw tents and sleeping bags strewn across the rocks on the seafront, where itinerant asylum seekers had set up camps.

We met Amanje, an asylum seeker from Iraq who said he had risked his life clinging to the bottom of a lorry three times but was detained by police at the port.

Speaking on the roadside, clutching at his sleeping bag and a handful of belongings, he said: “Every day is the same, nothing changes. I can’t find a job or money.

“I don’t want to live anymore. I tried [to leave] under a lorry. It’s not easy.

“I know it’s very dangerous, it’s inhuman, but what do you do?”

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Amanje said he was given humanitarian protection - which is like refugee status - after fleeing his homeland, but when this status expired a year ago, he lost his right to work.

He now spends his days roaming the south of England looking for food and shelter alongside other asylum seekers who have fallen between the cracks of the system.

Local fisherman Malcolm Spence said he intervened when one man tried to launch a makeshift raft, made with a wooden pallet and five-gallon drums, into the Channel.

A source in the French interior ministry corroborated our findings, saying authorities were battling a new wave of “reverse migration”.

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They said 300 people entered France illegally from the UK in the last year alone.

The true number, however, could be far higher as this figure only includes those who were discovered by authorities.

Meanwhile the British Home Office admitted it did not know how many people were leaving the UK for third countries illegally each year.

The French interior ministry source said Brexit had made it more difficult for the UK to deport migrants.

They said: “Since Brexit, there are no longer any readmission agreements between the UK and Europe – and this applies in both directions.

“The issue of a UK-EU agreement on this matter has been a longstanding request from France.”

Local Labour MP Mike Tapp also said that Brexit meant the Government was struggling to deport failed asylum seekers to Europe.

He said: “The fact we don’t have the Dublin agreement makes this really tough.

“The previous Government knew what was being signed up to (with Brexit) but they didn’t put in place a system to ensure we have secure borders. That was utter incompetence.”

Charity workers added that the asylum backlog is causing applicants to ‘give up’ and leave before they even receive a final decision.

Kay Marsh, who works at Dover-based charity the Samphire Project, said some asylum seekers were waiting months or even years for an outcome.

She said: “We’ve seen an increase over the last year [because] of the backlog and increased waiting time. It’s in the hundreds.

“With all the added extras like far-right attacks it’s adding to their uncertainty and fear.

“It shows how broken the system is – and we want the Government to help these people who just want to leave.”

The Home Office can only deport migrants to their countries of origin after negotiating a returns agreement.

However, thousands come from countries including Afghanistan, Iran, and Sudan, with which the UK does not share a returns arrangement.

Kay’s colleague, Aram Rawf, himself a former refugee who fled the Middle East, said: “There’s no safe, legal route for them simply to leave this country if the Government rejects their claims.

“I’ve seen people who lost a leg falling under the tyre of a lorry.

“I knew one guy who’d tried to leave on a lorry six times.

“Asylum seekers are living on the streets even in the cold and the rain of winter.”

Our findings come after the Labour Government pledged to clear the asylum backlog, deport failed applicants, and stop the flow of illegal boat crossings.

But the latest figures show more than 35,000 asylum seekers have crossed the Channel from Europe on small boats this year, and on the weekend Border Security Minister Angela Eagle acknowledged the Government did not know how many undocumented migrants were in the UK.

Figures published by the Home Office show there were over 97,000 asylum applicants still awaiting an initial decision in September.

This was less than the same time in 2023 but showed an increase of 13% in the first three months of the new Labour Government.

The Home Office has been approached for comment.